0xd7 in species name ?

[Eric Zurcher]

As Richard Jensen promptly and corrected noted, the multiplication sign
denotes a taxon as a named hybrid. But I think that perhaps Bob's question
ask a bit more than this - specifically, whether a character outside the
Latin (or perhaps I should say ASCII) character set - specifically Unicode
character 0x00D7, is allowable within a name. (Bob's a computer guy like me,
so I can understand is interest in clarifying the characters that can
"legally" appear within a taxon's name.)

I'm not a code lawyer, but looking at Appendix I, Article H.3 of the Tokyo
Code (see
http://www.bgbm.fu-berlin.de/iapt/nomenclature/code/tokyo-e/Art_h03.htm) I
read:

>The multiplication sign in the name of a nothotaxon should be placed
against the initial
>letter of the name or epithet. However, if the mathematical symbol is not
available and the 
>letter "x" is used instead, a single letter space may be left between it
and the epithet if 
>this helps to avoid ambiguity. The letter "x" should be in lower case."

This suggests to me that the preferred character is indeed the mathematical
symbol denoted by Unicode 0x00D7. Further, Recommendation H.2.A.1 would
indicate that male and female symbols (Unicode 0x2642 and 2640) are also
useable within hybrid "names" (to indicate the male and female parents),
though technically these appear within a hybrid "formula" rather than a
name.

On the other hand, Article 60 indicates that non-Latin characters, including
most letters with diacritical marks, and ligatures, are generally forbidden.
There is an exception regarding the diaresis, such as the ? is Iso?tes.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Robert A. (Bob) Morris [mailto:ram at CS.UMB.EDU]
> Sent: Wednesday, 13 November 2002 10:31 AM
> To: TAXACOM at USOBI.ORG
> Subject: [TAXACOM] 0xd7 in species name ?
> 
> 
> USDAPlants uses the "times sign" 0xd7 for many Quercus (and other)
> species, e.g. Quercus X acutidens (which can be found with a search
> Quercus acutidens ). Here I render "X" as does ITIS.  IPNI 
> omits it altogether
> 
> Can someone tell me:
> 
> a. What is the meaning of the "X"
> 
> b. Aren't taxon names required by ICBN to be entirely in Latin
> characters? If yes or no, can someone provide references to ICBN
> article and perhaps to Winston's book (Judith Winston, "Describing
> Species"). In Winston, I see such a claim for ICZN but not that I can
> find for ICBN.
> 
> c. Does ICBN support IPNI, ITIS, or both as accepted names.
> 
> Thanks
> Bob, Not a Biologist, Morris
>

Eric Zurcher
CSIRO Livestock Industries
Canberra, Australia
Eric.Zurcher at csiro.au